PMID: 12657363: Apoptosis and Parkinson's disease.

[janet paterson <janet313@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Apoptosis and Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a severe and progressive neurodegenerative
disease. It is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, after
Alzheimer's disease. It is caused by the selective loss of the dopaminergic
neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) pars compacta.

Although subject to intensive research, the etiology of PD is still
enigmatic and treatment is basically symptomatic. Many factors are thought
to operate in the mechanism of cell death of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic
neurons in PD.

In recent years, evidence for the role of apoptotic cell death in PD arises
from morphological, as well as molecular, studies in cell cultures, animal
models for PD, as well as human studies on postmortem brains from PD
patients. These studies indicate that apoptosis takes place in PD and that
there is a proapoptotic environment in the nigrostriatal region of
parkinsonian patients.

It is of utmost importance to conclusively determine the mode of cell death
in PD because new "antiapoptotic" compounds may offer a means of protecting
neurons from cell death and of slowing the rate of neurodegeneration and
disease progression.

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 2003 Apr;27(2):245-50
Lev N, Melamed E, Offen D.
Sackler School of Medicine, Rabin Medical Center, Petach Tikva, Israel
PMID: 12657363

janet paterson: an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit primarily perky, parky
pd: 56-41-37 cd: 56-44-43 tel: 613-256-8340 email: janet313@xxxxxxxxxxx
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